To some Fives Order Process we have agreed to go by seniority for this hearing. Most of my senate colleagues on this committee know, thursday will be our first in Person Hearing in more than a year, first time ive had the privilege to chair. I know all of us especially since the average age of a senator is higher than average age of typical american citizen, we know weve all learned a lot about technology. Some of us slower learners and others over the last 15 months. Today were joined by local leaders who represent a Cross Section of the country. Whether its an old industrial city or a college town, whether its indian country or appalachia, local leaders understand how proud people are of their hometowns. They want their town to be successful, they want their communities to grow and attract jobs. They dont want families to behe told to pick up and leave to find better opportunities. They dont want to lose workers forced out by rising housing costs. And mayors also know the many opport
Witnesses include mayors from akron, ohio, boseman, montana, and tempe, arizona. This is just under 90 minutes. Committee on banking will come to order. This hearing is in a virtual format. A few reminders, once you start speaking there, will be a slight delay before you are on the screen. To minimize Backgrounds Noise please click the mute button until it is your turn the ask questions. You should all have a box on your screen that says clock that shows time remaining. Five Minute Clock applies for your questions. At three minutes remaining you will here a bell ringing reminding you your time is almost expired. To simplify the speaking order process, Senator Toomey agreed to go by seniority for this hearing as most of my senate colleagues on this committee know, thursday will be our first Inperson Hearing in more than a year the first i have had the privilege to chair. I know all of us especially since the average age of a senator is higher than the average age of the typical american
Residents. It is made up of one city, 18 boroughs and 19 townships. We have the highest general fund balance, which is like a personal savings account for an individual, that it has ever had. It was achieved through conservative budget management, not through raising taxes. Lancaster County Board of commissioners has never raised our county taxes and has not been raised in nearly a decade which is hard to do in pennsylvania. Lancaster has the third lowest tax rate. Our Bond Rating has been rising and weve been good stewards of our infrastructure. Were Stead Lieu working through steadily working through the plan to work through our deficient bridges. The last year and a half has been a challenge for Lancaster County. We went into covid with the best economy we have seen. Wages were rising for all demographics. The lockdowns and refusal to address the economic damage of the pandemic did great harm to our economy. I am very proud of our Countys Response to covid. Our county helped end the
We have another special guest joining us today, secretary of agriculture tom vilsack. As you all know, this is his second term as apartment of agriculture which he led in the obamabiden administration from 2009 through 2017, making him the Longestserving Number of president obamas cabinet. In those years, sec. Vilsack sought to put americans back to work by investing in infrastructure, renewable Energy And Conservation partnerships. The ust introduced healthier food choices and school meals to benefit 50 million children and expanded free and reduced price lunches for millions of kids. Prior to his Appointment Or Nomination and confirmation, sec. Vilsack served two terms as the governor of iowa, in the eye with state senate, and as the mayor of now pleasant, i will. I will turn it over to the secretary who will take a few questions once he makes his remarks. Thanks very much, and certainly a pleasure to be here today with all of you. Im here primarily to talk about Food And Nutrition s
term. the chinese are saying that the precondition for the meeting, that the president agreed to, there would be no new tariffs added. president donald trump pushing back on that. listen. you won t put anymore tariffs on? no, i have not promised that. good question. no. reporter: seven hours ago the trade delegation for the chinese, the head of that delegation, the chinese vice premier, liu he, was seen going into the hotel where the u.s. delegation is staying. the two delegations were scheduled to meet ahead of the meeting between president trump and xi xinping. that first meeting would set up the second meeting. a lot of people are talking about it and it is very interesting and it will hopefully come out well for both countries. ultimately it will work out. reporter: the chinese are expected to present to president donald trump exactly what they would like to have in a trade deal in order to go forward. president xi xinping reportedly will say all u.s. tariffs have t